Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 6 days ago
At the Market Overview: Fintech co-hosted with Affirm during Toronto Tech Week 2026, Wayne Pommen - Chief Revenue Officer at Affirm - sits down with Alex Norman (Partner, N49P & Co-Founder, TechTO) for a fireside on what 10 years of building in Canadian fintech actually taught him.
Wayne built PayBright from 5 to 250 people - landing Apple, Hudson's Bay, Wayfair, Samsung, and Sephora as clients - before selling to Affirm in 2021. He now runs global revenue as CRO.
He breaks down why Canadian founders are too cautious and it's costing them, what "we should have pushed harder, bigger, sooner" actually means in practice, why the embedded finance playbook is now the main pillar of Affirm's SMB strategy, how Canadian consumers' deep trust in banks is both a structural challenge and an opportunity for fintech founders, and why open banking, real-time rail, and stable coins are creating a once-in-a-decade window right now.
The best time to build in fintech isn't coming. It's now.
Essential viewing for fintech founders, operators building payment or lending products, and anyone who wants to understand where Canadian financial services is actually heading.
🔔 Subscribe for more real founder stories from TechTO
📅 Explore upcoming TechTO events: techto.org/events Watch more talks: youtube.com/c/TechTorontoOrg
Upcoming events: techto.org/events
Events calendar: luma.com/TechTO-Events
Newsletter — The read on Canadian tech: blog.techto.org
Membership: techto.org/memberships
At the Market Overview: Fintech co-hosted with Affirm during Toronto Tech Week 2026, Wayne Pommen - Chief Revenue Officer at Affirm - sits down with Alex Norman (Partner, N49P & Co-Founder, TechTO) for a fireside on what 10 years of building in Canadian fintech actually taught him.
Wayne built PayBright from 5 to 250 people - landing Apple, Hudson's Bay, Wayfair, Samsung, and Sephora as clients - before selling to Affirm in 2021. He now runs global revenue as CRO.
He breaks down why Canadian founders are too cautious and it's costing them, what "we should have pushed harder, bigger, sooner" actually means in practice, why the embedded finance playbook is now the main pillar of Affirm's SMB strategy, how Canadian consumers' deep trust in banks is both a structural challenge and an opportunity for fintech founders, and why open banking, real-time rail, and stable coins are creating a once-in-a-decade window right now.
The best time to build in fintech isn't coming. It's now.
Essential viewing for fintech founders, operators building payment or lending products, and anyone who wants to understand where Canadian financial services is actually heading.
🔔 Subscribe for more real founder stories from TechTO
📅 Explore upcoming TechTO events: techto.org/events Watch more talks: youtube.com/c/TechTorontoOrg
Upcoming events: techto.org/events
Events calendar: luma.com/TechTO-Events
Newsletter — The read on Canadian tech: blog.techto.org
Membership: techto.org/memberships
